Stories
SEP 15, 2026
A Journey That Started With Water
How a hot summer workout, a simple circle and a €3 tiling tool slowly became Aqua-Bend — a water resistance training system built around movement.
CHAPTER 01
Too Hot to Train. So I Made a Circle.
It started in the summer of 2024 with a very simple problem:
It was too hot to train.
We were heading to the Croatian coast, so I started thinking about training in the water instead. I asked a simple question: what shape creates the most resistance when pushed through water?
The answer led me to a circle. Great. I can make a circle. Well… almost.
At the time, I couldn’t model it in 3D and didn’t own a 3D printer. Luckily, I worked with Primož — our office MacGyver who could somehow make almost anything. I gave him the idea and dimensions. He modelled it, printed it, and my first prototype was born.
315 mm wide. A massive handle. And a raised edge to catch even more water.
It looked perfectly reasonable. Until I took it into the Adriatic.
The disc was too big. The handle was too thick. And I had seriously underestimated my opponent: water. My relaxing summer workout had suddenly become a wrestling match with the Adriatic. 😄
But there was one important discovery. It worked.
CHAPTER 02
The €3 Breakthrough.
About a month later, I was helping my brother lay tiles. Not exactly where you’d expect the next idea to come from. I picked up a cheap plastic tile trowel and noticed the handle.
Wait. That’s actually comfortable.
The open space around the grip gave the thumb a natural place to sit. So I went home, grabbed my first prototype and started cutting.
Cut. Try. Cut a little more. Try again.
And suddenly that terrible oversized handle started feeling like an actual ergonomic grip.
Apparently, part of the Aqua-Bend design process cost about €3 and came from the tiling aisle.
CHAPTER 03
Getting Slightly More Serious.
Prototype No. 2 was smaller — 300 mm — and this time the grip positions were designed in from the beginning. The raised edge stayed.
I also added openings for a wrist strap, giving the hand more support when controlling the disc against the water. And that led to another thought:
If I can strap it to my hand, why not my leg?
Suddenly, my circle with a handle wasn’t just an upper-body training tool anymore. Things were getting interesting.
CHAPTER 04
It Worked. So I Put It in a Cupboard.
I tested it with my father. I gave it to friends who trained. The feedback was good. The resistance worked. The idea made sense.
So naturally… I put it in a cupboard for half a year.
There was one thing I couldn’t get past. It just felt too simple.
After all, I’d basically invented… a circle with a handle. 😄
Surely a new product should be more complicated than that? Apparently, I needed another trip to the sea to figure it out.
CHAPTER 05
Maybe Simple Was the Point.
I packed the prototypes again. Back in the water, I started training.
Push. Pull. Rotate. Change the angle. Move faster. More resistance. It still worked.
And this time I stopped asking how complicated the product should be. If it works, it works.
Maybe simple wasn’t the problem. Maybe simple was the point.
Maybe simplicity wasn’t the weakness. Maybe simplicity was the point.
CHAPTER 06
Beyond Exercise.
That was when I started showing it to people who understood movement from very different perspectives. My friend Hinko Mlakar, a physiotherapist, saw possibilities beyond fitness, particularly around controlled movement and rehabilitation.
Then, in November 2025, one of the next prototypes travelled much further than I did. To Denmark.
I sent it to Kaja Trifkovič, who brought a background in kinesiology, strength and conditioning, and was also a certified aquatic exercise instructor. At the time, she was completing her Master’s degree in Public Health in Denmark.
There was another little piece of history printed on that prototype: AquaFlow. That was the name before Aqua-Bend existed.
Kaja’s feedback was extremely positive. And like Hinko, she saw possibilities that went beyond the fitness tool I had originally imagined.
That was the push I needed.
CHAPTER 07
A Circle Became Aqua-Bend.
From there, the experiment became serious product development. AquaFlow became Aqua-Bend.
The grip evolved. The geometry changed. Different resistance levels followed. Straps opened the system to more of the body. Eventually, one circle became FLOW, FIT and FLEX — and a growing library of Bend Sessions.
But underneath all of that, the original idea is still surprisingly simple.
A surface. A grip. And water.
Almost two years of ideas, prototypes, testing, cutting, doubting and starting again… to make a better circle with a handle.
And I’m completely fine with that now. 😄
Bend the water. Build resilience.
